Gustav Bunsen

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Johann Ernst Friedrich Gustav Bunsen (born August 25, 1804 in Frankfurt am Main ; † February 27, 1836 near San Patricio , USA , died), was a German surgeon , leader of the Frankfurt Guard Tower and later a fighter in the Texas War of Independence.

family

He was the son of the Frankfurt mint master Johann Georg Bunsen (1766–1833) and grandson of Philipp Christian Bunsen . Bunsen married Augusta Berchelmann, the sister of his Frankfurt friend Adolf Berchelmann , in Belleville (Illinois) . His older brother was Georg Bunsen, who later became an important educator in the USA. His cousin was the chemist Robert Wilhelm Bunsen .

Life

In Germany

Even as a young medicine student, Bunsen began to be enthusiastic about the emerging republican ideas. He joined the old Würzburg fraternity and in 1824 the Heidelberg fraternity . In 1831 he took part in the Polish uprising against Russian supremacy and in May 1832 he was a participant in the Hambach Festival . As a political activist and member of the board of the " German Press and Fatherland Association " he belonged to the small group that was held on a secret fraternity day on 26./27. December 1832 prepared revolutionary countermeasures in Stuttgart . In the "Frankfurter Wachensturm" (April 3, 1833) he was the leader of 50 liberal students from Giessen and other Hessian intellectuals , craftsmen and Polish officers who tried to storm the main guard and the constable guard in Frankfurt in order to free the journalists imprisoned there . Despite repeated calls by Bunsen, the freedom fighters received no support from the Frankfurt population. So the uprising failed within a very short time. The fighters also included his older brother Georg Bunsen, Gustav Körner , Theodor Engelmann and Adolf Berchelmann, who, like Bunsen, then fled to the USA to avoid their arrest. Like his brother Georg, Gustav Bunsen was a member of the Frankfurt Freemason Lodge Socrates for steadfastness .

In America

In America, Bunsen first lived in Belleville (Illinois), where he got married, but later moved on to Cincinnati ( Ohio ). When the politician and General Sam Houston called in October 1835 to fight the Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna , Bunsen volunteered in Louisville, Ohio, with the company of Captain James Tarlton and moved with him to Texas .

When his troops reached the town of San Antonio (Texas) in December 1835 , it was already in the hands of the Texas freedom fighters. Bunsen joined the 1,836 volunteers - Corps of Colonel James Grant (1793-1836) and Francis White Johnson (1799-1884) in the campaign to Matamoros in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas on. With only 64 men they reached the place San Patricio in Texas on January 22nd, 1836. Here they stayed for about a month and caught horses to equip other soldiers who were still to be recruited. During this time, Santa Anna launched its counter-offensive south of the Rio Grande . In the early morning of February 27th, Bunsen's detachment was caught by a squad of Mexican cavalrymen , most of them were killed, the rest were captured and taken to Matamoros.

Bunsen was also one of the dead and was buried where he had fallen. In the old cemetery of San Patricio there is now a memorial on which his name is also recorded.

On March 14, 1860, 24 years after Bunsen's death, his descendants received 960 acres of land in Texas as thanks for their father's self-sacrificing service and fight for freedom in the Texas Army.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Roland Hoede: The Paulskirche as a symbol. Freemasons in their work for unity and freedom from 1833 to 1999 (= source research work of the research lodge Quatuor Coronati 39). Research Lodge Quatuor Coronati, Bayreuth 1999, p. 19.
  2. ^ Gustav Bunsen in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 22, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Bunsen, Gustav
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bunsen, Johann Ernst Friedrich Gustav
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German surgeon and freedom fighter
DATE OF BIRTH August 25, 1804
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH February 27, 1836
Place of death San Patricio , Texas, USA